On today’s Fightin Words podcast: Continuing with Pastor Kevin Erickson of Crosshill Community Church in Virgina, MN, we tackle the elephant in the Christian political living room. Gay marriage. Are Christians handling social issues appropriately?

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Apart from wild heretical outliers like that Fred Phelps character who's now gone to meet his master, are there really "blasting" sermons going on any more? At any time after 1990, say?

Or are these just chimerical "bad Christian" caricatures from Hollywood central casting, fed to idiotic moviegoers who don't know any actual Christians and have no basis for comparison...along with the courageous scientists, the psychopathic jingoistic generals, the corrupt murdering businessmen,and so on?

Uh, Catholics oppose divorce and were against the "reform" of divorce laws 30 years ago. They still are fighting a losing battle on that one.And one reason that the MSM thinks the Pope is pro socialism is that they interpret his condemnation of third world corruption as political, not as "thou shalt not steal". Indeed, here in the Philippines, the Catholic fight against corruption, divorce, and abortion are the main issues, not our gays, who are merely part of our rural society (at least outside of the westernized gay subculture of Makati)

Sodom and Gomorrah were not destroyed due to rampant divorce and gluttony.

I don't think it's the existence of sin in society that is fatal, but rather the proclamations that sin is not really sin. Nobody is arguing that gluttony is really okay, even good. And divorce, I think, is seen at best as a necessary evil, not as something good to be sought and celebrated.

There's a matter of scale here. Gluttony is a sin for several reasons, but it does not begin to equate to abortion or divorce. For one thing, abortion, marriage, and homosexuality all touch on the only power of His which God has given directly to man - the power of creation of life. There are boundaries put on this power for the good of individuals as well as societies. In my church, divorce is seen as a dreadful tragedy, and we do as many couples classes, outreach programs, etc., etc., as any small group possibly could trying to stem that tide. We're losing, I admit, but not for lack of trying. To say we (and other Christians) do not condemn divorce is to say you don't know much about Christians of any flavor.

Apart from wild heretical outliers like that Fred Phelps character who's now gone to meet his master, are there really "blasting" sermons going on any more? At any time after 1990, say?

Or are these just chimerical "bad Christian" caricatures from Hollywood central casting, fed to idiotic moviegoers who don't know any actual Christians and have no basis for comparison...along with the courageous scientists, the psychopathic jingoistic generals, the corrupt murdering businessmen,and so on?

Ditto. Though I can well imagine the Baptist pastor I had as a child blasting, I can't really envision the pastors at my current church, Presbyterian PCA, blasting anyone. I think the tone is more sad than angry.

Uh, Catholics oppose divorce and were against the "reform" of divorce laws 30 years ago. They still are fighting a losing battle on that one.And one reason that the MSM thinks the Pope is pro socialism is that they interpret his condemnation of third world corruption as political, not as "thou shalt not steal". Indeed, here in the Philippines, the Catholic fight against corruption, divorce, and abortion are the main issues, not our gays, who are merely part of our rural society (at least outside of the westernized gay subculture of Makati)